Evaluating the emotional impact of virtual expressions: ERPs analysis of smart agent appearance

With the development of artificial intelligence, the smart agents are widely used in various fields as auxiliary tools for human–computer interaction (HCI), but there are still deficiencies in providing individuals with diverse emotional experiences. This study focuses on the impact of smart agent appearance design on individual emotional experience and behavioural performance, and analyses the data of emotional experience and interactive behaviour through event-related potentials (ERPs) experiments. These results bridge design aesthetics with HCI experience. This study concluded that: (1) Cartoonish appearances are more conducive to improving emotional cognition efficiency and are suitable for tasks requiring quick responses; (2) Realistic appearances elicit more top-down cognitive control, are more visually appealing, and are better suited for tasks where smart agents are used to attract attention. This study explored the impact of the visual features of smart agents on people’s emotional experience and interactive behaviour, analysed the emotional processing and task performance of individuals when facing smart agents with realistic or cartoon appearance, and discussed the visual and emotional information, research techniques and external behavioural manifestations in the interaction process, providing practical insights for optimising the emotional expression of smart agents in HCI.